42nd Amstel Gold - Report, Results & Photos
A blue day on the Cauberg as a Gerolsteiner duo of Stefan Schumacher and Davide Rebellin finish first and second after a late stage attack. Liquigas' Danilo Di Luca third. Rebellin new ProTour leader.

The Amstel Gold race was won by Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner)  in an attack at 3 kilometers from the finish leaving behind a group of the favorites Paolo Bettini (Quickstep/Innergetic), Rabobank's Michael Boogerd,  Matthias Kessler (Astana), Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas) and Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d' Epargne). Team mate Davide Rebellin followed Shumacher to the line besting; Di Luca, Kessler, Boogerd, and Valverde each separated by seconds.

The group held a 50 second gap on the chasers at 7 km from the finish after Di Luca (Liquigas) and Alejandro Valverde of Caisse d' Epargne joined the quartet. Defending champion Frank Schleck missed the break with tired legs after rejoining the peloton after a bad crash with 50 kms to go, and valiantly fighting to return to the peloton for 18 kilometers on his own.

The peloton passes a windmill in the early stages of the race.
Photo c. Fotoreporter Sirotti

The race was animated with an early break by Tom Stubbe (Chocolate Jacques), Boyougues Olivier Bonnaire, Nick Ingels (Predictor/Lotto), Daniel Musiol (Wiesenhof/Akud) and Piet Rooijakkers of Skil/Shimano that took the flyer at 52 kilometers into the race and the quintet built a maximum gap of almost 8 minutes by the half way point in the 252 kilometer classic. 

With CSC and Frank Schleck leading the chase the gap started to come down to five minutes as the race reached 75 kms from the finish. As the break pressed on Nick Ingels was dropped afer the second time up the Cauberg. Disaster struck Schleck with the crash at the 50 km to go point, he remounted and chased, within 4kms the escapees were within site of the chase with only a 30 second gap.

Once the quartet was caught attacks flew at the front but it was CSC's Jens Voigt, Wiesenhof's Steffen Wesemann and Daniele Righi getting the gap of 15 seconds that had them dangling off the front of the peloton for 6 kms. Meanwhile, Schleck made his way back to the peloton with 32 kms to go.

The peloton swept up Voigt and company 22 kilometers from the finish and briefly the peloton was back together. An attack led by Gerolsteiner's Stefan Shumacher and Davide Rebellin gave them the advantage as Boogerd, Kessler and World Champion Bettini were the only ones to have the legs to follow.

Stefan Schumacher wins in the 2007 Amstel Gold. Photo c. Fotoreporter Sirotti

Valverde and Di Luca gave chase and bridged to the world class quartet with 7 km from the finish line. Schumacher and Rebellin worked their advantage of numbers to stage the attack at 3 kilometers for the one - two victory for the water boys of Gerolsteiner, with Schumy finishing with 21 seconds ahead of his mate. Di Luca bested the others in the break for the final podium step as they rode in separated by only seconds.

Rabobanks Oscar Freire won the sprint from the lead chase group of 5 at for 8th place 1:07 behind Schumacher; with Ricardo Ricco 9th, and Frank Schleck putting in a stellar performance considering the days events for tenth place.

Davide Rebellin gained the lead in the ProTour after today's effort.

Podium: Danilo Di Luca , Stefan Schumacher and Davide Rebellin
Photo c. Fotoreporter Sirotti

Results 42nd Amstel Gold 252.2  kms
1 SCHUMACHER, Stefan 6h11'49"
2 REBELLIN, Davide à 21"
3 DI LUCA, Danilo à 22"
4 KESSLER, Matthias à 23"
5 BOOGERD, Michael à 24"
6 VALVERDE BELMONTE,Alejan à 27"
7 BETTINI, Paolo à 27"

New ProTour leader Davide Rebellin Photo c. Fotoreporter Sirotti

8 FREIRE GOMEZ, Oscar à 1'07"
9 RICCO, Riccardo à 1'07"
10 SCHLECK, Frank à 1'07"
11 RODRIGUEZ OLIVER,Joaquin à 1'07"
12 DEKKER, Thomas à 1'07"
13 WEGMANN, Fabian à 1'07"
14 KIRCHEN, Kim à 1'12"
15 SANCHEZ GONZALEZ, Samuel à 1'14"
16 ELMIGER, Martin à 1'14"
17 BOTCHAROV, Alexandre à 1'14"
18 VAN SUMMEREN, Johan à 1'14"
19 AERTS, Mario à 1'14"
20 BELLOTTI, Francesco à 1'14"
21 BARREDO LLAMAZALES,Carlo à 1'14"
22 IGLINSKIY, Maxim à 1'14"
23 MORI, Manuele à 1'14"
24 NOCENTINI, Rinaldo à 1'14"
25 COBO ACEBO, Juanjo à 1'14"
26 MARTINEZ DE ESTEBAN,Egoi à 1'14"
27 BROCHARD, Laurent à 1'22"
28 MORENI, Christian à 1'23"
29 CARRARA, Matteo à 1'29"
30 SPEZIALETTI, Alessandro à 1'32"
31 KROON, Karsten à 1'32"
32 CELESTINO, Mirko à 1'35"
33 POPOVYCH, Yaroslav à 1'35"
34 TANKINK, Bram à 1'40"
35 CAMANO ORTUZAR, Iker à 1'40"
36 IVANOV, Sergei à 1'49"
37 GERRANS, Simon à 2'19"
38 DE LA FUENTE, David à 2'19"
39 PAOLINI, Luca à 2'19"
40 FLORENCIO CABRÉ, Xavier à 2'19"
41 BARRY, Michael à 2'19"
42 MARTENS, Paul à 2'19"
43 TEN DAM, Laurens à 2'19"
44 VERDUGO MARCOTEGUI,Gorka à 2'19"
45 ZABALLA, Constantino à 2'19"
46 WEENING, Pieter à 2'19"
47 JEROME, Vincent à 2'27"
48 PASAMONTES RODRIGUEZ,Lui à 2'27"
49 SINKEWITZ, Patrik à 2'29"
50 KLIER, Andreas à 2'29"
51 ROGERS, Michael à 2'29"
52 DUQUE, Leonardo à 2'47"
53 KOLOBNEV, Alexandr à 4'09"
54 VANENDERT, Jelle à 4'19"
55 LORENZETTO, Mirco à 4'27"
56 PAUWELS, Serge à 4'44"
57 LLOYD, Mathew à 4'44"
58 ZABEL, Erik à 4'44"
59 KREUZIGER, Roman à 4'44"
60 WESEMANN, Steffen à 4'47"
61 JUFRE POU, Josep à 4'47"
62 GALDOS, Aitor à 4'47"
63 VELITS, Peter à 4'47"
64 VAN GOOLEN, Jurgen à 4'47"
65 VAN HUFFEL, Wim à 4'47"
66 COENEN, Johan à 4'47"
67 VASSEUR, Cedric à 4'47"
68 FOFONOV, Dmitriy à 4'47"
69 TJALLINGII, Maarten à 4'47"
70 DEL NERO, Jesus à 4'47"
71 LUDEWIG, Jörg à 4'47"
72 ASTARLOZA, Mikel à 4'47"
73 DUMOULIN, Samuel à 5'09"
74 PINEAU, Jerome à 5'09"
75 BERNUCCI, Lorenzo à 5'09"
76 MENGIN, Christophe à 5'09"
77 FERNANDEZ BUSTINZA,Binge à 5'09"
78 CALCAGNI, Patrick à 5'09"
79 ALBASINI, Michael à 5'09"
80 BURGHARDT, Marcus à 5'21"
81 GUSEV, Vladimir à 5'31"
82 ETXEBARRIA ARANA, Unai à 5'45"
83 BRU PASCAL, Jon à 6'12"
84 LAURENT, Christophe à 7'56"
85 LANDALUZE INTXAURRAGA,In à 8'01"
86 CAPECCHI, Eros à 8'05"
87 RIGHI, Daniele à 8'25"
88 GRIVKO, Andriy à 10'23"
89 VOIGT, Jens à 10'23"
90 MOERENHOUT, Koos à 10'23"
91 BALDATO, Fabio à 10'23"
92 FRANZOI, Enrico à 10'23"
93 SCHLECK, Andy à 10'23"
94 KAGGESTAD, Mads à 10'23"
95 SCOGNAMIGLIO, Carlo à 10'23"
96 ROJAS, José Joaquín à 10'23"
97 KHATUNYSEV, Alexander à 10'23"
98 DEN BAKKER, Maarten à 10'23"
99 BENíTEZ ROMáN, Alberto à 10'23"
100 KERN, Christophe à 10'23"
101 CARLSTRÖM, Kjell à 10'23"
102 DE KORT, Koen à 10'23"
103 LOPEZ, David à 10'23"
104 DA CRUZ, Carlos à 10'23"
105 DEVOLDER, Stijn à 10'23"
106 LARSSON, Gustav Erik à 10'23"
107 SORENSEN, Nicki à 10'23"
108 EDALEINE, Christophe à 10'23"
109 CHAVANEL, Sylvain à 10'23"
110 ZAMPIERI, Steve à 10'23"
111 GESLIN, Anthony à 10'23"
112 ZIEGLER, Thomas à 10'23"
113 VELITS, Martin à 10'23"
114 GOESINNEN, Floris à 10'23"
115 ROOYAKKERS, Piet à 10'23"
116 ZBERG, Markus à 10'23"
117 FLECHA GIANNONI,Juan Ant à 10'23"
118 VISCONTI, Giovanni à 10'23"
119 MOUREY, Francis à 10'23"
120 VAN DEN BROECK, Jurgen à 10'23"
121 NUYENS, Nick à 10'23"
122 ENGELS, Addy à 10'23"
123 MERTENS, Pieter à 12'54"
124 MOREAU, Christophe à 13'45"
125 RENDERS, Jens à 13'45"
126 KRIVTSOV, Yuriy à 13'45"
127 VERBIST, Evert à 13'45"